Campaign group seeks to appeal against Wimbledon expansion ruling

A campaign group has said it will seek to take its legal battle over plans to almost triple the size of the Wimbledon tennis site to the Court of Appeal after losing a High Court challenge.

Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) previously took legal action against the Greater London Authority (GLA) over its 2024 decision to grant planning permission for the expansion, but Mr Justice Saini dismissed the challenge last month.

The proposals, submitted by the All England Club, would see the construction of 38 new tennis courts and an 8,000-seat stadium on the grounds of the former Wimbledon Park Golf Club, allowing it to host Wimbledon qualifiers on-site.

On Friday, SWP said that it had asked the Court of Appeal for the green light to challenge the High Court’s ruling, a decision it said had “not been taken lightly”.

Jeremy Hudson, a director of SWP, said: “Above all, this is a public interest case. Planning is ultimately concerned with whether a development is in the public interest.

“The existence of rights of the public, imposed through the statutory trust and the restrictive covenants in the public interest, should plainly be very material to the planning decision.

“Unwanted development of public open spaces is proposed all over London: Wimbledon Park is just one example.”

Barristers for SWP told the High Court at a two-day hearing in early July that the decision to approve the plans was “irrational” and should be quashed.

They claimed that Wimbledon Park – a Grade II*-listed heritage site partly designed by Lancelot “Capability” Brown – was covered by trusts and covenants governing how it could be used.

The GLA and the All England Club defended the challenge, with the court told that the restrictions were not “material”.

In a ruling, Mr Justice Saini found that the decision to approve the plans was “a planning judgment rationally exercised and having regard to appropriate and relevant factors”.

SWP said on Friday that it believed Mr Justice Saini “took insufficient account of the statutory trust and the restrictive covenants”.

It continued that a decision on whether it could appeal against the ruling was expected later this year.

Among the group’s supporters are comedian and writer, Andy Hamilton, and actress, Thelma Ruby.

Mr Hamilton said that the plans would come at “devastating cost to the local environment and community”, while Ms Ruby said that the plans would “desecrate a precious heritage landscape”.

The expansion proposals would see seven maintenance buildings, access points, and an area of parkland with permissive public access constructed, in addition to the courts and associated infrastructure.

They would also include work on Wimbledon Lake.

After Merton Council approved the plans, but Wandsworth Council rejected them, the Mayor of London’s office took charge of the application, but Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan recused himself from the process after previously expressing public support for the development.

Planning permission for the scheme was granted by Jules Pipe, London’s deputy mayor for planning, who said that the proposals “would facilitate very significant benefits” which “clearly outweigh the harm”.

Debbie Jevans, chairwoman of the All England Club, said at the time that the proposals would deliver 27 acres of “newly accessible parkland for the community”.

Following the ruling, Sir Sadiq said that the decision would “cement Wimbledon’s reputation as the greatest tennis competition in the world and London as the sporting capital of the world”.